UEFA Champions League season by numbers

UEFA.com crunches the figures from this season’s competition, in which Xavi Hernández became the first player to 150 appearances and Raúl González’s goal record was broken.

150
Xavi Hernández and Iker Casillas both attained the milestone of 150 UEFA Champions League appearances in the semi-final second legs, the FC Barcelona midfielder beating the Real Madrid CF goalkeeper to the figure by 24 hours.

77
The first of Lionel Messi’s three goals for Barcelona – his fifth hat-trick in the competition, also a record – against APOEL FC on matchday five made him the UEFA Champions League’s all-time top scorer, eclipsing the record of 71 strikes he shared with Raúl González. The Argentinian international now has 77, level with Cristiano Ronaldo.

5
Berlin was a fifth UEFA Champions League final for both Barça and Juventus, matching the feat of FC Bayern München. The record number of participations still belongs to AC Milan, with six.

11
Barcelona have reached 11 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, more than any other side. Real Madrid (ten) and Bayern (nine) are next on the list.

8
Barcelona also contested an eighth successive quarter-final, another UEFA Champions League record. They previously shared the mark of seven with Manchester United FC (1996/97–2002/03) and Real Madrid (1997/98–2003/04).

26
Of the 88 UEFA Champions League semi-finalists, 26 have been Spanish – the largest contingent from a single nation. The 2014/15 campaign was the fifth consecutive season that the country has had multiple representation in the last four – a new landmark.

10Madrid’s win at FC Schalke 04 in the round of 16 first leg was their tenth in a row, equalling the all-time competition record set between April and November 2013 by Bayern.

5
Only five times in UEFA Champions League history has a team scored five or more goals in the first half, yet Bayern did it twice in one season, away to AS Roma in the group stage and at home to FC Porto in the quarter-final – the first time the feat has been achieved in the knockout phase.\

3.59
The red card for Shakhtar defender Olexandr Kucher in that 7-0 round of 16 second-leg reverse at Bayern was the fastest in UEFA Champions League history. Clocked at three minutes 59 seconds, it took almost two minutes off the previous record – established by SV Werder Bremen’s Valérien Ismaël against FC Internazionale Milano in September 2004.

10
Ronaldo’s penalty for Real Madrid against Juventus in the semi-final second leg took his haul for 2014/15 to ten goals. It is the fourth straight season that he has hit double figures; just two other players have managed the feat two campaigns running – Ruud van Nistelrooy for Manchester United in 2001/02 and 2002/03, and Messi in 2010/11 and 2011/12.

19
Madrid featured in the knockout phase for a record 19th time. They have never failed to progress from the group stage and are currently on a record run of 18 consecutive knockout phase appearances. The next best-placed clubs in that category are Arsenal FC (12) and Barcelona (11), both of whose sequences are also ongoing.

6
Madrid became just the sixth team to win all six group stage fixtures and the sole club to have done it twice. Their tally of 16 goals scored and two conceded is inferior only to their own record of 2011/12, when they struck 19 and let in two. The other four sides with perfect group records are Milan (1992/93), Paris (1994/95), FC Spartak Moskva (1995/96) and Barcelona (2002/03). None of these – nor indeed Madrid three seasons ago and this year – went on to lift the trophy.

8
Barcelona advanced as group winners for the eighth successive season, thus extending their own competition record. It was the Catalans’ 16th top spot (including three in the second group stage), also a tournament high.

1
AS Monaco FC became the ninth club to go through the group stage shipping just a single goal, after Milan (1992/93), AFC Ajax (1995/96), Juventus (1996/97, 2004/05), Chelsea (2005/06), Liverpool FC (2005/06), Villarreal CF (2005/06) and Manchester United (2010/11). No team has ever kept clean sheets in all six group games.

24
FC BATE Borisov set a new record for most goals conceded in the group phase – 24, an average of four a match. The previous mark, registered jointly by GNK Dinamo Zagreb and FC Nordsjælland, was 22.

38
Francesco Totti’s goal for Roma at PFC CSKA Moskva strengthened his position as the UEFA Champions League’s oldest scorer – at the age of 38 years 59 days.

9
Shakhtar’s Luiz Adriano managed nine goals in this term’s group stage, matching Ronaldo’s record of 2013/14. Luiz Adriano also became the first player to claim a hat-trick in consecutive games in the competition, against BATE on matchdays threeand four, and only the second player to score five goals in a UEFA Champions League fixture – afterMessi against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in March 2012 – in the 7-0 win at BATE, when he was also the first player to net four times in the first half.

7-0
Shakhtar’s thrashing of BATE, in which they became the first team to notch six goals in the first half, was the joint-second-highest margin of victory in the UEFA Champions League, behind Liverpool’s 8-0 defeat of Beşiktaş JK in November 2007. It equalled the biggest-ever away triumph, Olympique de Marseille’s 7-0 success at MŠK Žilina in November 2010. With Bayern simultaneously prevailing 7-1 at Roma, two clubs scored seven goals on a matchnight for the first time in the tournament’s history. Roma are the first side to ship seven goals twice, losing 7-1 at Manchester United in April 2007.